Having just celebrated Earth Day, many of us have been thinking about how much stuff is wasted. And while wasted stuff is a huge problem, I also found myself thinking about how much time is wasted. We scroll endlessly, we swipe, we tap, we watch stuff on Netflix we don’t even like. Most of it doesn’t leave us feeling good about ourselves.
That’s partially because ‘junk time,’ like junk food, squeezes out room for the more important things. If our time diet is filled with junk, we have less room to be creative, to think deeply, to actually connect, in reality, with our friends and family. And we’ll probably forget to make time to call our mothers (friendly reminder: Mother’s Day is coming up on May 13!).
Ditch Your Device. Photo by Michelle Watt.
By no means is all junk time nor everything on the internet a waste. Here are a few bright spots we loved spending time on this past month:
In addition to thinking about junk time, we’ve poured through all of our feedback emails, as usual—144 this month.
Here’s one that really moved us:
“My husband and I came here for some quiet time. Our jobs have been draining us lately and with each passing day, we are finding it increasingly more difficult to go through our 9 to 5 routine. Things are so difficult at work…I personally find myself almost crying every day and I can see the tiredness grow in my husbands’ eyes…you thought of every little detail from the books to the cell phone lockbox to the commitment page. BEYOND PERFECT, if there is such a thing, is what this weekend has been. Thank you for all that you’ve had to do and endure to make Getaway a reality. You will never know how much this place truly means to us now,”
Our jobs have been draining us lately and with each passing day, we are finding it increasingly more difficult to go through our 9 to 5 routine.
We were touched deeply by this note and relate all too well to a lack of work-life balance. Stories like these are why we’re on a mission to create a counterbalance to our lives not only at our tiny cabins, but in our own offices and homes, and hopefully in the everyday lives of our guests. More on this to come.
As we move into May, perhaps try to keep a list of how you spend your time. How much of it is ‘junk time’? How can you make an effort to spend more time on the things that really matter?
Below are a few links to things we’ve been thinking about lately. As always, feel free to get in touch if you have feedback or ideas.
Be well,
Jon, CEO + Founder
ITEMS OF NOTE WORTH TAKING THE TIME FOR
Photo by Zak Suhar.
Driven to Distraction — Cozy up in a chair to read this powerful essay by Rebecca Solnit that tackles what it means to live in an uber-connected society. “Even our ability to find our way through a given landscape has been outsourced to devices.”
Work-Life Balance as a Social Media Manager — Managing social media as a career can be a tough challenge for work-life balance. We speak with leaders from companies we admire from Headspace to Virgin to Away.
I have been raised in South Texas most of my life, and have lived in Austin just 3 years now. I am a commercial and lifestyle photographer that has shot almost every type of shoot you could think of. I have a lot of field experience shooting photography as I have shot with many diverse types of clients/brands. My creative practice involves spending each week doing the following 4 things: shooting, editing, client reach, and marketing. I spend an ample amount of time on each, but editing usually takes up the majority of my time.
Without nature, I would have never found my passion for photography. I started shooting while I began camping often in college. I realized the human connection to nature was so deep and I really wanted to capture the true beauty of nature even though no photo will compare to one’s true experience in it. Nature is a constant influencer of my art. The color of leaves, the snow-capped mountains, the red-toned rocks all shape my eye for shooting and editing.
The Getaway was exactly what I needed at the right time. I was coming off of a heavy work week. And, to get out in nature without phone service/wifi brought some clarity back to me. I had more time to process and brainstorm creative ideas in the cabin, and the surrounding beauty of the cabin and nature gave me the inspiration for my creative flow.
How would you feel if your next corporate workshop or training were on the back of a horse?
An entrepreneur after our own heart, Kristin Meek believes that getting out of the office and into nature is how to get the most out of her time with business and corporate clients. By pulling them out of white walls and fluorescent lights and inviting them to her ranch in Virginia, Meek finds that she’s better able to guide clients to clear their minds, identify their individual (or team) strengths and values, and strengthen them through her careful, nature-based curriculum.
Meek studied Psychology at Duke and went on to get her Masters in Applied Positive Psychology at University of Pennsylvania. Before founding WYLD, she was a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, universities, and public school districts – helping everyone from senior executives to elementary school kids develop talents and build a sense of purpose. Eventually, she left her consultant job and focused on bringing fresher air and fresher perspectives into her sessions.
We’re big fans of the work that Kristin and her team are doing and had to find out more.
Everything in the great outdoors is a metaphor for the lessons and paradoxes of life and work.
Tell us your story: I grew up incredibly blessed with a great education, great health, and wonderful friendships and mentors. Because of this gift, I’ve felt a profound responsibility to create meaningful experiences for people of all ages. Nature is our greatest classroom and I believe it is in the presence of the wilderness where we can learn best about our own true nature and “true north”. Everything in the great outdoors is a metaphor for the lessons and paradoxes of life and work.
My curiosity for psychology, ancient wisdom, and experiential learning were little signs to a bigger calling, which is now my life’s project and business, WYLD.
WYLD was originally founded as a side hustle on my family’s working cattle ranch in Wyoming in 2013. I thought it might be a cool idea to use the Wild West and ranching activities like fly fishing or herding cattle as learning modalities to teach people about their strengths and unique internal GPS as leaders, artists, and parents. Last August, I decided to hang up my consultant hat and give WYLD the full-time focus I felt it needed.
Nine months later, we have an incredible team across the US and our mission is resonating with so many: we guide individuals, teams, and businesses in the intentional design of how they spend their time. We use their talent, build their tribe, and personalize their environments. The way we do this is through consulting, experiential off-sites, retreats, and coaching. WYLD draws from positive psychology, neuroscience, Gallup workplace research, ancient wisdom, and ecopsychology to create customized learning experiences.
The llamas.
What occupies most of your time during the day? Typically, I’m coaching individuals or designing curriculum for different client teams. A lot of my day is spent playing and brainstorming with the team around various needs we have for the next three months. I also tend to visit my chickens to gather fresh eggs for my avocado toast.
I’d say our days are a split between being and doing — laziness and adventure.
What occupies most of your time during the weekend? My husband and I (and our black lab, Olive) live on a farm so there are a lot of chores to be done on the weekends. I’d say our days are a split between being and doing — laziness and adventure. I try to be outdoors as much as I can, which can be hard with the inertia of deadlines, books to read, or Netflix. Sam, my husband, lures me out of the house because he’s usually building or fixing something or taking the llamas for a walk. I also love taking baths, reading, and cooking yummy meals for friends.
What do you wish you had more time to do? Read and philosophize! Ideally in my bathtub or outside in the woods. Life goal: bathtub in the woods.*
*Editor’s Note: Us, too.
We cannot be in a state of flow when doing more than one thing at a time.
What do you wish you did less of? Multitask. I’m working HARD at a single task at a time but my brain can feel like kittens playing with yarn sometimes. I recently read Ikigai – The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life and it gave some compelling evidence about how unproductive and inefficient we are when we multitask. We cannot be in a state of flow when doing more than one thing at a time. This got my attention big time and now I bring this into my coaching and workshops… that said, I just opened 10 other tabs and answered a text, ha.
What is your favorite non-digital activity? Taking a bath.
What is your favorite tech or app that helps you balance your life? I love Inscape, which is a guided meditation, sound healing, and relaxation app. Typically I use it when I wake up to start my day and when I fall asleep.
I also believe we should work in ways that give us energy and work when we have energy.
How do you manage work-life balance as an entrepreneur? Ritual, practicing what I preach, being in nature, and trying to do one thing at a time. A favorite mantra I have is poco a poco, or little by little. It helps me slow down. I work to harness my strengths to manage my time in a way that feels good to me, even if it may seem crazy to other people.
I also believe we should work in ways that give us energy and work when we have energy. If that means 10 PM at night, cool. I try to remind myself and get reminders from others to take lots of breaks and get movement throughout the day. There’s a ton of research on how helpful this is for our wellbeing and mind.
Kristin on her family ranch.
If you could have a day off to spend anywhere with anyone, what would you do? I’d like my Grandma Jane (who’s no longer alive) to give me a tour of her hometown in County Cork, Ireland where she lived on a working farm and used to ride her horse to school every day.
What would you pack in a suitcase if you had to live with only those items for the rest of your life? The book Simple Abundance(part of my daily ritual), pictures of my friends and family, a never-run-out-of-ink pen and a massive journal, probably some avocados, a boho dress, and my glasses or contacts.
What do you think you’d be doing in a world without technology? Riding horses. Writing, reading, teaching, and sending snail mail letters all the time.
Who are your favorite writers? Mary Oliver. Anne Lammot. David Brooks. Dan Pink.
How do you create balance in your life? What is balance…a moving target, inner peace? I tend to listen to my body and go from there. She doesn’t lead me astray; I just have to listen. Learning how to listen, though, is what takes practice and time. Balance isn’t doing things at 50/50. It changes every day, just like doing my best is different each day.
Which living person do you most admire? Oprah. I even wrote her a letter when I was a child.
A two hour escape from Atlanta, to a tiny cabin nestled in nature. What could be better?
Postcard Cabins Chattahoochee is our first location in the South, and home to our thoughtfully designed, wifi-free cabins that can help you disconnect from your day-to-day and reconnect to who and what really matters.
What to Expect From This Location
Our cabins are located within 2 hours of Atlanta, a drive towards the Chattahoochee National Forest, in scenic Suches, Georgia. Note that during your drive, you may experience times with no cell phone coverage so it’s always a good idea to have your directions with you in case that happens.
When you book your escape, you’ll receive a confirmation email with essential information. On the day of your reservation, you’ll receive a text in the morning with your cabin name, lock code number, and other helpful information to get you situated, like frequently asked questions.
Check in time is at 3PM, and you can drive straight into the location. Park in the designated area and walk right up to your cabin, punch in the lock code, and your tiny cabin will be ready for you.
While every tiny cabin is private, safe, and secure, you will see other cabins while you’re at Postcard Cabins Chattahoochee.
What’s in a Tiny Cabin at Postcard Cabins Chattahoochee
Our tiny cabins come with everything you need and nothing you don’t. Picture a queen bed (or bunk queens if you chose a cabin for 4), a kitchenette with mini-fridge and 2 burner stove, a bathroom with a toilet and shower, provision and firewood for purchase, an outdoor fire pit with grilling grate, and outdoor seating. If you bring a furry friend with you, we’ll also have a bowl for them, waste bags, an outdoor lead, and some treats.
What to Do at Our Cabins
There’s no need to stress about making an agenda, consider this a trip without an itinerary. You can read a book (we have a mini-library in each cabin), take a walk, go for a hike on the nearby Appalachian Trail, cook a meal over the campfire, or simply do nothing at all. It’s your time to spend exactly how you want it. If you do find yourself a little jittery at the prospect of doing nothing, we have an activity booklet in the cabin for you to work your way through.
What to Cook at Our Cabins
Guests love cooking over the campfire or in their cabins. We have single-use pour-over coffee for your mornings, and other easy to cook provisions available right in the cabin. You can also plan ahead and read our campfire cooking recipes here.
While Virginia-based photographer Leah MacDaniel specializes in wedding photography, she has always had a passion for landscape work as well. As part of our Artist Fellowship Program, Leah recently took to Getaway Shenandoah for some uninterrupted time with her camera.
Leah, who owns and operates Flit Photography, she starting taking photos after she inherited a set of antique 35mm film cameras from an aunt who passed away.
“For a long time, those cameras felt too special to use, so I kept them carefully packed away and dutifully moved them with me from place to place,” Leah said. “However, when I started my journey with minimalism, I decided that I could no longer hold onto these cameras just as a sentimental token – they either needed to be useful to me or they needed to find a new home.”
Once she took the cameras out for a spin, Leah started sneaking around at night to search for new places to photograph. She began experimenting with portraiture after one of her friends let her photograph them.
“I am a firm believer that every person should have at least one portrait of themselves that makes them feel amazing,” Leah said. “I would love to be able to use portraiture in an affirming way to help trans youth feel comfortable and beautiful.”
In the short term though, Leah’s been dreaming of photographing a styled bridal shoot in a swamp. First though, she’ll have to find a client with the same vision.
While Getaway allowed Leah to be both bored and uncomfortable, it also allowed her to grow and enjoy the space she needed to create. Leah frequently craves solitude in nature, so our Outpost was the perfect place to escape to.
“As an introvert, my internal batteries get drained pretty quickly,” Leah said. “I don’t have to do anything fancy. I just need a quiet space where I can be alone with my thoughts and tune in to what I really need.”
Interested in a creative break of your own? Escape today.
One of the best parts about escaping the city is taking things a little bit slower. Waking up as sunlight streams in, stretching, laying in bed and staring out the window, and cooking meals instead of grabbing takeout or ordering delivery.
DC-based food blogger Mattie Hanley headed out to our Outpost last month and made two recipes for breakfast which are “delicious, and also don’t need any kitchen gadgets so they’re easy to make in a kitchen away from home.” Utilizing some of the same ingredients across dishes makes for an easy shopping list before your trip, with some very tasty results.
Dive into her stuffed breakfast arepas and butternut squash and goat cheese shakshuka below.
Campfire Cooking: Stuffed Breakfast Arepas
Ingredients:
• 2 frozen arepas (the kind with Mozzarella recommended)
• 2 eggs
• 1 avocado
• 6-8 strips of bacon
• crushed red pepper
Directions: Cook the bacon to desired crispiness in the provided frying pan (for crispy bacon, start with a cold pan, use medium heat, flip often). While the bacon cooks, halve the avocado and cut into slices. Once bacon is cooked, set aside on a paper towel lined plate, do not dump the bacon grease. While the pan is still hot crack two eggs directly into the bacon grease (this will get you a really nice fried and crispy edge on your eggs!). Cook to desired firmness. While the eggs are cooking, use the pot to cook the arepas. Drizzle some of the provided olive oil in the pot and place the arepas directly onto the bottom of the pot. Cook according to package or until golden brown on both sides. Assemble: arepa, avocado, bacon, egg. Season generously with crushed red pepper and the provided salt and pepper. Enjoy while hot.
Campfire Cooking: Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Shakshuka
Ingredients:
• 1 jar of your favorite tomato pasta sauce (fun flavors recommended, like mushroom or garlic)
• 4 eggs
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 cups of diced butternut squash
• 1 4 oz pack of fresh goat cheese or 1/2 cup of feta
• 1 bunch of fresh parsley
• 1/2 lb of breakfast sausage or ground meat of your choice
Do a little at-home prep for this one. Since you don’t need a whole butternut squash, you can peel and dice the squash at home to cut down on prep time at the cabin and eliminate the need to bring leftovers home! Depending on how involved you want to make it, you could buy breakfast sausage and crumble it, or you could pre-make some kafta at home and bring it with you. You can find various kafta recipes online, but a simple version is ground beef (or equal parts ground beef and lamb) seasoned with generous amounts of dried parsley, oregano, basil, garlic, onion, cayenne or crushed red pepper, salt, pepper. The generously seasoned meat, and the spices in the tomato sauce will eliminate the need to bring your whole spice rack with you to the cabin.
Directions: Drizzle some of the provided olive oil in the pot and turn the heat up to medium. While that heats, dice the onion. Add the diced onion and diced butternut squash to the pot and let them soften for 2-3 minutes. Add whatever crumbled meat you chose. Season with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper. Cook thoroughly. Dump in the whole jar of tomato sauce. Stir to combine. Let simmer for 3-5 minutes. Use a spoon to make four “wells” in the sauce mixture, crack the eggs directly into the wells. Turn the heat down to medium/low, cover with the lid. Monitor the eggs and watch closely until the whites turn white, be careful not to overcook the yolks. Garnish with more crushed red pepper, goat/feta cheese, and fresh parsley. Serve immediately.
Whip up these recipes and more on your next Getaway. Book an escape today.
Getting away should be about relaxing and recovering from hectic city life. Recharging doesn’t have to mean lying in bed all day- although it certainly can. Sometimes the best way to disconnect is by exercising and keeping yourself healthy.
We caught up with some fitness experts to ask them how they stay in shape when traveling. Whether you’re escaping to a cabin nestled in nature or you’re flying to a new city, these tips are great ways to put your mind at ease through fitness.
Tips for Staying Active on the Road
CorePower Instructor Calli Pappas says her favorite part about travel is time to focus on what makes her happy, so exercising is a must. Calli goes on walks or runs without any music or distractions. That way, she can get a feel for her new environment, while keeping herself fit. She says this routine, along with her mindfulness practices, keeps her grounded when she travels.
“I’ve always had a pretty strong and solid fitness routine, but I found something was missing,” Calli said. “It wasn’t until after college when I discovered yoga and then, overtime, meditation, among other mindfulness practices. Incorporating these practices into my lifestyle has helped to increase my overall awareness, intuition, gratitude, and overall quality of health and well-being.”
Calli recommends packing resistance bands and sliders on your next trip, so you can do a quick core and glute-strengthening exercise anywhere you go.
Personal Trainer Alicia McKenziealways scopes out the gyms, or lack thereof, before a trip and she makes an exercise plan before leaving.
Alicia loves making the most of what she has around her. She usually focuses on bodyweight exercises when she’s away from home. Her on-the-go fitness routine always includes running, air squats, lunges, burpees, and plank holds.
Fitness and Mindfulness
Fitness guru Aly Raymer does a little bit of everything. When she’s not working at B/SPOKE Studio or teaching yoga at Exhale Spa, she’s organizing wellness retreats.
“Mindfulness is the key to a fulfilling workout,” Aly said. “You must take care of both mind and body in order to really reap the benefits of fitness. You can workout all the time, eat all of the healthy things, but if you have a negative mindset or are totally disconnected for your body, it’s for naught.”
Aly loves exploring cycling studios in new places. When those are unavailable, she tries to go on walks and explore on foot, as well as use dance for exercise. Aly says it’s important to always listen to your body. Remember that it’s okay to use travel time to relax and recover from your frequent workouts.
The Light Phone is a divisive concept: it’s a beautiful phone that has all the sleek design and appeal of an iPhone, but features none of the intelligent capabilities of internet browsing, emails, or downloading apps.
Its purpose is to allow people to roam free, unfettered by the distractions of technology, but also to allow its users to be reachable by phone if needed. Ironically, this product was born out of an experimental Google incubator for designers. Brooklyn-based artist and designer Joe Hollier felt instructed by the program to “find a sticky idea, something users will get hooked using for hours a day, make it free so it can scale, collect data and sell advertising as revenue and package it together with a pretty bow.”
Joe thought to himself that the last thing the world needed was another smartphone app. Along with his co-founder Kaiwei Tang, who was in the same program and had a decade of experience with cell phones, the Light Phone was born. While The Light Phone was originally designed to be a second phone, the Light Phone II has a couple of added features, such as an alarm clock, making it conceivable (gasp) that we could all return to non-smartphones full-time.
Read on to learn more about Joe, his thoughts on work-life balance, on the noise of the internet, and where we are headed.
How did your program react to a product that inherently can’t have any apps? The reaction has always been pretty polarizing, which as an artist I love. There isn’t a lot of non-reaction, people tend to love it or hate it. In the program, there was a lot of initial skepticism for sure. The very real and deep conversations that arose from pitching what was at the time just a piece of plastic, some photoshop and a little imagination were powerful to me.
What occupies most of your time during the day? The short answer is The Light Phone. I spend most days at our office at NewLab in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I’ll oversee customer service, interacting with a lot of our current and future users. I enjoy talking about the ideas that inspire the Light Phone with a variety of press outlets or other interested thinkers who cross our path. Designing the experience of the Light Phone II has been my main focus lately, which includes following the hardware and software engineering, lots of conference calls and required documentation, as well as lots of tinkering alone, sketching ideas and then presenting them for feedback with trusted friends and eventually to the engineers that make them real. I take lots of walks, either while on calls or preferably just to think. Walking is great for thinking. What occupies most of your time during the weekend? I never really had “weekends” before the Light Phone in that I never had a real job. They have become sacred to me now that I have a semi-9-to-5 feeling life these days. I do whatever I want on the weekends. I don’t always get weekends and that’s ok too. That’s certainly the toughest part of creating something of your own. What do you wish you had more time to do? Personal projects. The Light Phone is amazing and I feel truly lucky to be working on something I am passionate about, but I’m so used to much shorter projects, usually overlapping, covering a variety of my interests at a time so sometimes the idea of doing ANYTHING but thinking about Light Phone seems so much fun. The grass always seems greener.
The thing about the Light Phone, and maybe the whole “digital wellness/mindfulness movement”, is that there is not some magic pill that automatically creates balance in your life.
What do you wish you did less of? Blaming myself and taking full responsibility for any of the many large-scale problems of the world, typically overwhelming myself into hopelessness and paralyzation. What is your favorite non-digital activity? Drinking piña coladas. Do you use any technology or apps that help you balance your life? The thing about the Light Phone, and maybe the whole “digital wellness/mindfulness movement”, is that there is not some magic pill that automatically creates balance in your life. There’s no answer to your stress or problems, like almost every product claims to be. The Light Phone is an attempt to be the hard questions if anything. What will you do now that you don’t have your smartphone? How are you spending your life? It’s an initial withdrawal almost, but it hopes to be an existential reminder that we are responsible, and therefore in control of our lives. We can choose to find balance, which for me means finding and loving the healthy outlets I have for my anxiety often and to avoid the toxic parts of the internet world of narcissistic, click-baity, ad-driven feeds as much as possible. If you could have a day off to spend anywhere with anyone, what would you do? Hiking and camping with my lovely girlfriend Rachel. What would you pack in a suitcase if you had to live with only those items for the rest of your life? Camera, notebook, skateboard, laptop, headphones and my cat. I wouldn’t actually put her in a suitcase, but she’d make my list of things I can’t live without.
What do you think you’d be doing in a world without technology? I think in many ways, the same stress/struggles/pleasures/joys would exist similarly without technology, but maybe not to the overwhelming degree we currently experience. I imagine I’d be exploring what it means to be alive through storytelling, music and the other timeless arts that have always inspired me and everyone else prior to technology.
What will you do now that you don’t have your smartphone? How are you spending your life?
Who are your favorite writers? Kafka, Camus, David Foster Wallace, Noam Chomsky, Joan Didion, Richard Feynman, Oliver Sacks… in no particular order and apologies to the tons of other authors who have truly changed my life that were not mentioned. When and where are you happiest? Walking the Williamsburg bridge has been a solid go-to happy place since I moved to NYC about ten years ago.
How do you create balance in your life? Turn off and tune out often. Don’t take myself or the Light Phone too seriously. Laugh often, cry often. I need my regular outlets, playing music, skateboarding, painting, cameras, walking, camping, reading… Which living person do you most admire? I appreciate the ordinary heroes. Humble, hardworking, smiling folk. They inspire me.
What’s up next for you after Light project? I try not to think too much about it because I know how excited I can get thinking about the possibilities. I try to instead ask what can I do next with Light, this platform that I can’t take for granted. If I do think about it, I’m fascinated by the idea of having more physical space to create, play and live closer with nature. The idea of making a home. I’d like to be there sooner than later. I wish I could go to school forever. I’m happiest I think when I am in that student/learner mindset, but you can also get there when you’re in your studio too.
Interested in spending some time offline without a light phone? Book a Getaway with us— all cabins have landlines in case you need to really call someone.
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